Updated 2009-11-05 16:36:56

In other news, I was supposed to work on Friday 30th October, but it seems everyone's shifts at my work were canceled due to various system upgrades that got scheduled at the very last minute. I guess that even fate itself felt I needed to make this special. Freaky. Stop testing me, fate.

Many, many thanks to my cast for getting their lines in - sorry for the lack of reply to most of them. And special thanks to D-Mac for suggesting and mixing the audio for #222 - NSFH, Not Safe for Humanity! Something which he says he will never ever want to do ever again. And I cannot blame him. Mixing can be hard. And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

This episode is several days late, many apologies for that. I just haven't been in a great mood recently and mixing a comedic series while in a bad mood is not something that works out all that well, if at all. And it was "not at all" in my case. I won't go into details here because I'm thinking of reworking my "sad" into "mad" and write an amusingly hysterical rant about it, but let's just say it involves the complete genocide of the bogan people of Australia and why it is not only a justifiable proposition, but the ONLY proposition worth considering as well. It'll have charts and statistics and other scientific-y stuff to prove my absolutely irrefutable point.

Anyway, not the best way to announce this but if you watched this video all the way through you'll have noted that this is the "second-to-last episode ever". Yes, it is true. After episode 12, I will no longer be releasing the "The VG Cats Adaptation With No Name" on a bimonthly basis - all forms of schedulised VG Cats adaptation entertainment from my crew and myself will cease to be. I'd only really ever intended to maintain this schedule for a couple of episodes to get this VG Cats adaptation-ing out of my system, in any case - and 12 seems to be a good an episode as any to end things on.

However! This will not be the last VG Cats-related thing I'll be making. There's a Halloween and Christmas special planned for release in the (very near) future, as well as another Bloopers special plus the possibility of a "Weeaboo" special. So there'll be more VG Cats stuff, they just won't be coming out as regularly as these first 12 episodes. As for what I'm planning to do after VG Cats? I got a couple of things I've been thinking about doing to keep up my manic mixing madness. Keeping things on the hush hush for the moment. Anyway, stay tuned for the last (regular) episode coming out in a week and a half!

As always, thanks to my cast for turning in such great perfomances! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

Updated 2009-08-30 08:19:30

After the exceptionally long liner notes for the previous episode I decided to keep this one brief.

....

Ha! Me? Brief? That's funny.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say about this episode - it's a pea-centric episode (barring one strip, as I only ever found four dealing with the peas) and it was pretty straightforward! Tried out a few new visual tricks here and there for my own amusement. Put in a couple of throwbacks and references to previous eps, as well as a tribute to the work of a certain magnificent voice artist/actor/director/magician that taught Superman how defeat Martians from Mars with a magic trick, whose greatest claim to fame was an advertisement about peas. Also, a giant planet-sized robot that ate planets and other robots not as giant as he. And he also made some big important movie in the 40s or something, I dunno about that one.

Many thanks to my (far smaller for this episode and yet thoroughly awesome) cast list for doin' thar dat thar actin' thang! You guys did a good'un! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please continue to enjoy these adaptations and not sue me.

Updated 2009-08-19 20:28:53

This was.... an INTERESTING episode to make. Specifically "#172 - The Ragin' Cajun" and the surprise, last-minute stunt-casting/mixing for "Brogamers".

Let's start with "#172 - The Ragin' Cajun". You'd think a comic franchise as lucrative as the X-Men would develop a consistent aural/musical identity after so many years of adaptations and re-adaptations of their most popular storylines-- Well okay, actually you wouldn't, I guess. Not every animated series has the strong, consistent universe that Bruce Timm, Paul Dini et al created when they magicked up the width and breadth of the DCAU (along with consistent character themes and musical cues). Even the movies have had a different composer for each film - each composer giving a different treatment for a "main themesong" for the X-Men.

Basically what this all boiled down to was - I didn't really have a lot of memorable themesongs from the various X-Men series to use for backing the strip. And what memorable themesongs there WERE, only ever showed up in the opening sequences of their respective cartoon shows. Which was filled with distracting SFX from whatever cool actioney stuff was happening on screen at the time. Fortunately for all, it all worked out in the end! With a little bit of wriggling over what could be considered a "memorable themesong" that is in some way "connected" to the "X-Men". Quotation marks.

Now, "Brogamers". "Brogamers" came out only a couple of days a-bro-- I mean. ago. And after mixing the episode as it was and coming up a little bit short on the running time, I decided to embark on some last-minute STUNT CASTING to adapt "Brogamers". Not something I usually do, I tend to plan an episode about a month in advance: sending out lines to my actors, gathering music and sfx, image editing, audio editing (once I get lines in) - that all takes time and I like a little padding to prevent my going crazies as I also begin prepping what strips to use in the episode AFTER the next one and the casting that goes with it at the same time. Oh, and releasing the current episode, as well. So doing what I usually do for the other strips in this episode - but in the space of less than a week (actually four and a half hours - in the case of audio cleanup, audio mixing then video mixing after everything was gathered up for me) is ZOMG crazy and I will never do it ever again ever. Until the next time. Special thanks has to go to D-Mac, sonicmega and Darkwolf for agreeing to do lines/directing on such crazy short notice - and then going on TOP of that and adding a whole bunch of bro-tastic adlibs not in the original strip. Unfortunately, the process seems to have driven one of my actors crazy, as he couldn't speak a single sentence afterwards without some bro/brah-related pun. He has since been locked into a padded cell where he will bother no one else with his maniacal punning for the rest of his life and forever.

Anyway. Woof. Long liner notes for this episode. Many, many thanks to all my voice actors and for their time and effort in bringing out these episodes on a bimonthly basis. I really couldn't do these episodes without you, so thank you for sticking out with these series and providing great work time and time again. And of course, I reiterate the special thanks to D-Mac, sonicmega and Darkwolf for their awesome help in "Brogamers". And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

[[EDIT: HOLY CARP! Featured on the front page of VG Cats itself? Thank you so much, Scott - insanely flattered right now. And: helloooooooooooooooo, new viewers! Boy, there sure are a lot of yous.]]

Sorry folks, no new episode this week. My recent bout of sickness has left me with a Leo voice that sounds like Darth Vader trying to do Roger Rabbit. Great if I wanted to sound like Darth Vader trying to do Roger Rabbit - not so good for Leo. So while I'm waiting for my voice to get back to 100% have a blooper reel! It has us voice actoring people doing silly things while trying to say lines which are also quite silly. You may find it amusing.

Updated 2009-07-15 08:42:47

Sound mixing and video editing is probably not something that you should do while sick or pregnant, but here I am! Just the sick part. I don't think I come installed with the baby oven option. Not a lot of drama for this episode apart from being sick and leaving mixing things to the last minute (as per my usual habit on important projects, haHA!). One person was actually missing lines for their character for an entire panel - but rather than delay this episode waiting for that one person to get their line in, I stepped in and filled the gap with the polystyrene seal of my voice. Try and guess where said gap in the dialogue appears! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised! Or somewhat shocked to hear my voice there, since the voice I played substitute for was a girl. Don't judge me.

Other things: This episode was also going to have a longer tribute to the television show "Sliders" in "#239 - Bizzaro!" - splicing in some footage from the TV series (specifically the opening titles flashing through all the characters and a wormhole sequence) but after the scare I had with UMG pouncing on episode 2 for using the music to Schindler's List, I decided not to take the chance. In fact, I'm not even sure if using the couple of seconds I did of the Sliders' themesong was all that good an idea, even. Well, we'll cross that deadly highspeed freeway when we come to it.

In any case, thank you to my huge (huge, huge, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE) castlist for being a part of this and (mostly) getting all their lines in! You are awesome for continuing to make the magic happen! :-) And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

Updated 2009-06-30 08:56:09

While I've worked with a fairly decent-sized castlist before - this is the first time I've had to work with a large castlist AND make a deadline. The stress involved just about killed me for this episode and, of course, I will never, ever, EVER want to subject myself to that sort of thing ever again. Ever. "Do not want" being the operative phrase, however. "Will not do" is not an option given that the next couple of episodes have been planned already. Oy. Time for a cup of tea and a lie down.

In any case, thank you to everyone who got their lines in with gusto and enthusiasm! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

Well, I kept up with the panel transitions I used in the previous ep, but totally ditched the small circle of hell that is Windows Movie Maker. So say goodbye to WMM and hellooooooooooooooo to Sony Vegas! It is shiny. I likes its shinynesses. And mixing is about 99.9999% easier to boot (though it's been said I've been prone to exaggeration - but those people what said that died from being thrown into the Sun by my very strong leg muscles)! Though now with the power of Sony Vegas behind this series and the myriad of options, filters and various thingamebobs now available to me - I think production may drag a bit from now on due to the number of things I *can* do. As opposed to the limited number of things I could do before. Which then crashed. And did stupid things. And then crashed some more. CONTINUOUSLY.

Man, the castlist just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each subsequent episode. Thanks to everyone who stepped up to the plate and voiced their hearts out for this series! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

Updated 2009-06-02 10:47:39

Oy, was this one a pain to finish. I'm trying out something a little different for how the panels are presented compared to the previous episodes - which resulted in nearly three times as many images to work with, and for an effect that may probably not be noticed by many. Also, Windows Movie Maker just does NOT like the amount of fine transitions and cuts the extra image-ry requires - crashing about five times during the editing process, and at one point it even refused to load the movie project file! Which caused a lot of major panic in the eleventh hour of mixing. D:

So, on top of the WMM's various oddities (why would the view snap back to the beginning of the timeline when I've CLEARLY tried scrolling to the end? Why is it when I drag the edge of clip, sometimes it'll try to resize it, but other times it'll move the clip and try to do a fade with a clip next to it? And how the HELL do I turn off the option where the view follows the damn play bar as it moves down the timeline???) this will probably be last the last time I use WMM to make a VG Cats Adaptation With No Name episode. At least, if I can't find a better alternative. For free. Which I probably won't and sadly return to WMM - defeated.

Thanks to my awesome cast for being a part of this latest installment - big thanks has to go to D-Mac for chewing through all the narration! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.

Fourth episode here! Not much to say about this one. It's pretty long. Perhaps TOO long! Or mayhaps.... Not long enough? Not enough to satisfy the exhortations of one's funnybone??? D: I shall return to my lowly dank lair and make more, master.

Anyway, thanks to Autumn Stroble and Cody Coleman for agreeing to reprise their roles of Aeris and Pantsman respectively once more - and now introducing Lucien Dodge as Johnny Evilguy! And of course, a whole lot of thanks to Scott Ramsoomair for creating VG Cats! Please don't sue me.